'Muslims are mainstream in US' - study

The vast majority of US mosque leaders say Muslim youths are not becoming more radical because Islam is increasingly being woven into American society, according to a survey by a multifaith coalition released on Wednesday.

The Mosque Study 2011 shows that the number of US mosques is growing fast and Muslims are more mainstream. This is despite a backlash after the militant attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 2001, and suspicion about militant Islam, the authors of the study said.

"The Muslim community in America is growing, vibrant, and becoming more and more a part of the American landscape," Ihsan Bagby, one of the authors, told a news conference.

"9/11 has not detracted, has not been an obstacle in the growth of the Muslim community."

The survey showed that 87% of the mosque leaders disagreed with the survey statement that "radicalism and extremism is increasing among Muslim youth - in their own experience."

Only 25% of leaders last year believed that American society was hostile to Islam. In 2000, 54% agreed that US society was hostile to Islam.

More than 98% of mosque leaders agreed that Muslims should be involved in American institutions, and 91% agreed that Muslims should be involved in politics.

However, the survey comes a week after the New York Police Department defended targeting Muslims in a 2007 surveillance operation in Newark, New Jersey. Police denied they had broken any laws in the operation.

The survey was sponsored by a raft of organisations, including the Hartford Institute for Religion Research and the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, and such Muslim associations as the Council on American-Islamic relations.

The mosque survey is part of a larger study of US religion by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, a multifaith coalition. Similar surveys were carried out in 1994 and 2000. The researchers selected a sample of 727 mosques for the poll, then interviewed the imam, president or board member at 524 mosques. The margin of error is 5%.

David Roozen, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research and another author, said the greater threat to Islam came not from radicalism but from secularisation that has led to a steady drift away from religion in the US.

Bucking an overall US drift away from religion, the number of mosques counted reached 2106 last year, up 74% from 2000, the survey showed.

The fastest growth has come in US suburbs and the South as Muslims set up mosques closer to their homes, said Bagby, an associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky.

"If the mountains of Kentucky can have mosques, you'll find mosques everywhere," he said.

Muslims who attended prayers for Eid, the high holiday prayers, reached about 2.6 million in 2011, up from 2 million in 2002, according to the survey.

That could mean the number of Muslims in the US is close to 7 million, the survey said. -